Our latest set of data shows that volumes of online enquiries for new and used cars grew by 14%, year-on-year, during January 2018.

This contrasts with declining walk-in and telephone leads, which fell by 11% and 4%, respectively, in the same month. Total enquiry volumes from all sources – online, telephone and walk-in visits – declined by 2%.

The findings highlight how growing numbers of consumers are beginning their car buying journey online. Looking at where consumer interest is being directed, online leads for new cars grew by 6.5% last month, while for used cars the increase in online leads was even greater, up by 24%, year-on-year.

Our data also indicates that dealers are, on average, making greater efforts to drive footfall and sales. Outbound calls to prospects rose 50% when compared with January 2017, with sales staff following-up on more inbound enquiries and contacting more existing customers to help counter the impact of a downturn in new car registrations.

Martin Hill, Managing Director at Dealerweb, commented:

“New car sales are expected to decline further during the rest of the first quarter of 2018, particularly in comparison with 2017’s record first three months. However, our data suggests online enquiry volumes will remain stable or grow, as more consumers initiate the purchase of a vehicle over the internet”.

The data highlights that dealers are reacting to market pressures by stepping up their outbound prospecting calls, redoubling their efforts to seek out new customers. This more proactive approach to drumming-up consumer interest can be made significantly less time-consuming by implementing a robust enquiry management system and follow-up procedures.

Dealerweb research has previously indicated that 49% of buyers are more likely to complete a vehicle purchase if they receive a response to an online enquiry within one hour; 25% of buyers said they expected a dealer to respond in under 30 minutes.

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